The POWER List: Mark A. Jess

Employee Rights Law Firm, Kansas City

Not many attorneys can say they’ve had a case that caused an entire bench of the Court of Appeals to recuse themselves.

Mark Jess, founder of the Employee Rights Law Firm, represented Melissa Howard, a white woman who was rejected for a Kansas City municipal judgeship because city council members wanted a more diverse panel of candidates.

Howard won $2.1 million at trial in 2008. The entire 11-member Western District stepped back from the appeal, as Howard’s husband, Vic Howard, was a judge of the court. A special panel of judges considered the case for a year before concluding that municipal judges weren’t covered by the Missouri Human Rights Act.

The Missouri Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion in 2011, affirming the verdict and also establishing that governmental entities are liable for punitive damages under the MHRA. Just days after the Supreme Court victory, Jess put it to use in winning a verdict of $2.6 million, including $1.8 million in punitives, for two longtime Kansas City employees who alleged racial and age discrimination.

Jess earned his law degree from the University of Missouri in 1990. When he’s not lawyering, he works with his wife and law partner, Christie, on their Platte County ranch outside of Weston.